Projections show losses for Socialists and Christian Democrats, gains for the right in EP elections

The European Parliament has published its first set of projections on how the chamber would look after the May elections, indicating losses for the Socialists and Christian Democrats, and gains for the right.

According to the projections the Socialists and Democrats (S&D), the Labour Party’s group, should get 19.15% of the vote, amounting to 135 seats, 51 less than the 186 it has right now.

The European People’s Party (EPP), the Nationalist Party’s group, will also suffer a loss, obtaining 25.96% of the votes, constituting 183 seats, a decrease of 34 seats over the current 217.

Europe of Nations and Freedoms (ENF) - an alliance of rightist political parties, including Italy’s Lega Nord and France’s Rassemblement National - will however see their seats increase from 37 to 59, or 8.37% of the total.

Matteo Salvini’s right-wing Lega, which will see its number of seats in the ENF go up to 27 from the six it has now, is set to become the European Union’s second-largest national party, after Germany’s centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

Labour gains a seat, Nationalists lose one

When it comes to the projections for Malta - which are based on MaltaToday’s survey published in February - Labour is expected to obtain four seats, while the Nationalists should obtain two. The PL, the projections predict, will get 62.7% of the vote, the PN 36.4%, AD 0.5%, and PD 0.4%.

The projection data is based on a selection of reliable polls conducted by national polling institutes in the member states and aggregated by Kantar Public on behalf of Parliament.

There will be a total of 705 seats in the European Parliament after the May elections, down from the current 751, which is the maximum allowed by the EU treaties.

Once the United Kingdom withdraws from the EU, its 73 seats will be redistributed to other countries, while the remaining 46 seats will be kept for future enlargements, bringing the total to 705.